Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a Republican, conducted a filibuster over the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of data.

When Paul, who is also running for President, conducted his filibuster, it wasn’t only a few his fellow Republicans who helped him out—there were even more Democrats, including New Mexico’s Martin Heinrich.

From the National Journal:

Seven Democrats spoke with Paul, compared with just three Republicans. [Oregon Democrat Ron] Wyden’s visit set in motion more Democratic Senate speeches from New Mexico’s Martin Heinrich, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin, Delaware’s Chris Coons, Washington state’s Maria Cantwell, and Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal. Even Chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Jon Tester—the man responsible for trying to take Paul’s Senate seat into Democratic control in 2016—came down to speak out alongside the Republican senator.

Heinrich’s portion of the hours-long filibuster lasted over 13 minutes, including some interaction with Paul. The full video, courtesy Heinrich’s office, is available at the bottom of the post.

During his portion, Heinrich criticized Barack Obama over not doing more to stop the bulk data collection.

“I’ll admit, however, and my friend from Kentucky has brought this up on several occasions already, that I’m incredibly disappointed that the President hasn’t used his existing authority to unilaterally roll back some of the unnecessary blanket metadata collection,” Heinrich said.

Rand Paul during a filibuster on NSA bulk data collection on May 20, 2015.

Heinrich said, however, that it is “nonsense” that this means Obama wants to keep the current program.

“The President has asked Congress to give him additional authorities so that he can carry out the program in an effective manner, and the USA Freedom Act seeks to do just that,” Heinrich said.

The USA Freedom Act is a bipartisan piece of legislation that Heinrich co-sponsored the Senate version.

A version has already passed the House of Representatives and was a rare occasion where all three members of New Mexico’s House delegation voted the same way on a high profile bill. The delegation is made up of two Democrats, Reps. Ben Ray Luján and Michelle Lujan Grisham, and one Republican, Rep. Steve Pearce.

The House version of the USA Freedom Act was introduced by Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis. He’s the same representative who introduced the PATRIOT Act in 2001.

Q&A with Rand Paul

During his time on the Senate floor, Heinrich asked Rand Paul about how the NSA data collection of “law-abiding American citizens” squared with the Fourth Amendment, which protects those in America from search and seizure without a warrant.

“I think there’s no way that we can square this bulk collection with the Fourth Amendment,” Rand Paul answered. He says he believes that the country has “over a long period of time diminished the protections of records held by third parties.”

“I think there will come a time that your papers that were once held in your house, there are no papers in your house,” Paul said. “There may not be paper. But there’s still the concept of records.”

He mentioned phone and email records as examples.

“I think there has to be Fourth Amendment protection of these,” Paul said.

While he did not participate Senator Tom Udall, a Democrat from New Mexico, also presumably appreciated that Paul actually did a talking filibuster. In 2013, Rand Paul filibustered to protest drone killings and Udall said he respected Paul for “going down to the floor and demonstrating what a real filibuster looks like.”

Udall has been a proponent of filibuster reform since joining the Senate in 2009.

Rand Paul’s filibuster lasted ten and a half hours. With a little help from his friends.

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U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján, a Democrat, entering his sixth term in office, was unanimously elected the Assistant Democratic Leader for the next Congress. In a statement, Luján said he was “honored” to be selected for that position, which makes him the number four Democrat in the House.

State Rep. Bobby Gonzales shook his head from side to side after listening to all the suggestions about how to meet a judge's order to provide more resources to New Mexico children who, in the court's view, are not receiving a good public education. "About 15 different ideas," the Democrat from Taos said following a hearing on the topic last week in the House Appropriations and Finance Committee.

Gov. Susana Martinez left office with low approval ratings, according to Morning Consult.
Meanwhile, both of New Mexico’s U.S. Senators’ approval ratings remained over 40 percent, with a high amount of voters with no opinion. The pollster found Martinez’s approval rating among all registered voters in her final three months in office was just 35 percent, while 49 percent disapproved of the Republican’s job performance.

A bill to stop the bulk collection of data as allowed through the post-9/11 Patriot Act passed the Senate on Tuesday and was quickly signed by President Barack Obama. Both members of the Senate from New Mexico voted in the majority on the 67-32 vote on the bill dubbed the USA Freedom Act.

Thousands of New Mexicans have already voted and Election Day is only weeks away. Which means politicians around the state are in high gear spreading their respective messages through commercials and campaign events.

State Rep. Bobby Gonzales shook his head from side to side after listening to all the suggestions about how to meet a judge's order to provide more resources to New Mexico children who, in the court's view, are not receiving a good public education.

Matthew Reichbach is the editor of the NM Political Report. The former founder and editor of the NM Telegram, Matthew was also a co-founder of New Mexico FBIHOP with his brother and one of the original hires at the groundbreaking website the New Mexico Independent. Matthew has covered events such as the Democratic National Convention and Netroots Nation and formerly published, “The Morning Word,” a daily political news summary for NM Telegram and the Santa Fe Reporter.
Matthew has appeared as a panelist for the Society of Professional Journalists’ New Mexico Chapter’s panel on covering New Mexico politics and the legislature.
A native New Mexican from Rio Rancho, Matthew’s family has been in New Mexico since the 1600s.